Main navigation

Swearing Toddler In Viral ‘Thug’ Video Removed By Child Services

The toddler who unleashed a slew of profanities as adults cheered him on in a viral video has been taken into protective custody. Nebraska officials in Omaha police’s Child Victim Unit and the Nebraska Child Protective Services confirmed that nothing illegal took place in the video, but took the child into custody by citing other safety concerns that included weapons charges against the mother and guns in the house found during a party that police raided last year. It’s unclear what steps the family of the toddler will need to take in order to get their child back or if that’s even a possibility.

The toddler’s mother is 16-years-old and had her identity protected because she is a minor herself. She said she was in the next room over, but did have any knowledge her friend would post the video to Facebook. “He had a clean diaper. The house was clean. And kids cuss. Every kid does it,” she said. “It hurts. I’m a good mother and I teach my son a lot.”

The viral video shows an African-American toddler knocking over a chair as a group of adults shouted obscenities and racial slurs at the little boy. The toddler in a diaper raises his middle finger and tells one adult to “shut up, b*tch.” The adults laughed and encouraged the behavior, even asking him to repeat specific offensive words while one of them mentioned a local gang.

The Omaha Police Officers Association referred to the video as a “cycle of violence and thuggery” when posting the video on their Facebook page. “We knew that despite the fact that it is sickening, heartbreaking footage, we have an obligation to share it to continue to educate the law abiding public about the terrible cycle of violence and thuggery that some young innocent children find themselves helplessly trapped in,” they wrote. Now while we didn’t see anything in this video that is blatantly ‘illegal,’ we sure did see a lot that is flat out immoral and completely unhealthy for this little child from a healthy upbringing standpoint.”

However, African-Americans in Omaha are outraged that the local police association essentially predicted that a toddler has no future. Willie Hamilton, President of community activist group Black Men United, said that “for them to take a video out of context — a 2-year-old who doesn’t have the brain capacity to know what’s going on — and to say that this child, because two adults acted inappropriately, is going to end up in a life of crime is totally inappropriate.”